Improvement in the manufacture of illuminating-gas



H. D. GREEN.

Manufacture of Illuminating Gas.

Patented Aug. 14, 1866.

lnvevzlor' :4. FEYERS PboloLitho riphor. wnnmmpfc UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

H. D. GREEN, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

IMPROVEMENT INTHE MANUFACTURE oF lLLUM lN ATlNG- GAS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,123, dated August 14, 1866.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, H. D. GREEN, of Portland, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Illuminating-Gas; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective "iew of an apparatus forthe manufacture of gas after my improvement, and Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the same.

My invention has relation to the manufacture of gas for illuminating purposes from the destructive distillation of sawdust and coal, for the purpose of improving the quality of the gas and economizin g its manufacture; and to this end my invention consists, first, in mingling bituminous coal and sawdust in about the proportion oftwo-thirds of theformer, in weight, with one-third of the latter, in a retort, subjecting these materials to destructive distillation, and passing the mingled gaseous products through a vessel containing heated coal-tar, and purifying the gas in any approved manner; and, second, in subjecting bituminous coal to destructive distillation in one or more separate retorts, and sawdust in one or more separate retorts. The proportion of coal and sawdust has relation to the gasyielding properties of each material, requiring for the best results about two-thirds of coal to one-third, in weight, of sawdust, and conducting the products of such distillation, through coal-tar, into a common reservoir, where they become thoroughly mingled, and then pass to and through the most approved purifying process to the gasometer, for distribution through the main and service pipes.

It is well understood that the olefiant gases produced from the destructive distillation of coals alone contain an excess of carbon, while those gases produced from the destructive distillation of wood are deficient in carbon, and that the former yields less and the latter more hydrogen, so that neither alone will produce the best gas for illuminating purposes.

By actual experiments, long-continued and widely-varied, I have found that the combination I have invented produces not only the best illuminating-gas, but a larger quantity, in proportion to the weight of material, than either will produce alone, and this with a very marked economy in material, time, and labor.

To enable others skilled in the art to carry my invention into practice, I have illustrated one mode of so doing; but my invention may be introduced into any well-organized gas manufactory without materially changing its machinery.

A bench of three retorts, A, A, and A, is so placed' that the flame from the furnace B will pass around each retort before passing to the escape'flue, the fire being fed with fuel through the door 0. Pipes D, D, and D lead from near the front end of the several retorts in the bench to a cylindrical tank, E, and terminate near the bottom of the tank, as shown in Fig. 2, which is filled to the red line with heated coal-tar. A pipe, F, leading from the top of the tank, carries the gas passing through it to any proper purifying apparatus, while a pipe, G, placed int-he end of the tank above the red line, will at all times carry off to a proper reservoir the excess of coal-tar that may accumulate in the tank.

Now, when the retortsA and A" are charged with bituminous coal, and the retort A with sawdust, in aboutthe proportions of two-thirds, J

by weight, of coal to one-third of sawdust, and all capped and luted, and the furnace is fired, and the retorts raised to a redheat, the olefiant gases will pass to the tank through the coal-tar, and become intimately mingled and fully charged with as large a proportion of carbon'as they will carry, whence they will pass through the pipe F to the purifying apparatus, while the excess of coal-tar will pass through the pipe G to any properly-placed receiver.

Under some conditions it may be found desirable to mingle the 'coal and sawdust in about the proportions of two-thirds, by weight, of the former to one-third of the latter, and charge each retort with these materials so mingled, and let the destructive distillation of both progress together, and I have found by experiment that excellent results will flow from either method.

I have named sawdustas the best form to which to reduce wood for the purposes of my destructive distillation, substantially in the manufacture; but it is obvious that any mimanner and for the purpose'set forth. nutely-divided wood may be made to yield its In testimony whereof I have hereunto subolefiant gases combined with coal, with subscribed my name.

stantially the same result. What I claim as my invention, and desire I V GREEN to secure by Letters Patent, is- Witnesses: v

The manufacture of illuminating-gas from EDM. F. BROWN,

coal and sawdust combined and subjected to JOSEPH I. PEYTON. 

